What person wouldn’t want a front row seat for Santa’s big night? And even though Phil is an adult, he’s a fantastical character himself. He even got an extra chapter in editing that I didn’t initially plan. There was one scene later on that was shifted to Tracy’s point of view, which wasn’t an issue, but for the most part, all of Phil’s scenes were kept intact. Thankfully, the first scene was never put on the chopping block. When you actually worked with an editor at Month9Books, did this issue come up?īefore I signed with them, they discussed with me some of the changes they wanted to make. That’s supposed to be one of the industry No-Nos, but as I mentioned above, this scene was a unique hook for your story. Speaking of that first page, you and I discussed at length the issue of starting a MG book with a scene from an adult’s perspective. The first chapter of Tracy Tam emerged from that idea.Ģ.

I wondered what it would be like if all of the characters were drones controlled by someone in a command center. I had a dream that I can’t quite remember, but it involved all of the holiday characters like Santa and the Easter Bunny. I was immediately hooked, and when I shared your opening with my fifth grade students, they were hooked, too. Krystalyn, I’ll never forget when you sent me the first few pages of Tracy Tam in their first draft form. And she has to do it all with Santa’s magic, which she doesn’t believe exists.ġ. Before the night is over, Tracy has to fix time and help Santa finish his deliveries. As a result, three states get knocked out of sync with the rest of the world. When Tracy attempts to hack into their computers, she accidentally introduces a virus to their system. In order to test her theories, she sneaks onto Santa’s sleigh and ends up at Santa Command, the place where a team of humans monitors Santa’s big night. A flying sleigh can only be powered by jet engines, and Santa’s magical abilities can only be the result of altered DNA.

Tracy doesn’t believe that Santa can deliver all of those presents in one night with out a little help from science. Krystalyn is a long-time critique partner of mine, and I am thrilled about her MG debut. Today I’m very excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Tracy Tam: Santa Command by Krystalyn Drown – a MG adventure that combines science and fantasy in a thoroughly satisfying way.

Tracy Tam by Krystalyn Drown